"The net effect of this, including the detention of the doctors and the medical personnel, the net effect for the patient is some patients are very fearful, and they don't know where to go when they are sick and injured, [or] if they are injured in these protests."

Michalski said wounded patients should be entitled to treatment, regardless of "what side" they were on.

"Medical personnel should be allowed to deliver that treatment in an impartial manner," he said.

Bahrain is ruled and dominated by a Sunni minority, Bahrain has a Shia majority population. Tension between the two communities has been festering for years.

To balance the population, the government is accused of granting thousands of citizenships to Sunni workers.

Bahrain, a US ally that hosts the US Navy's Fifth Fleet, called in troops from its fellow Sunni-led Gulf neighbour Saudi Arabia to help it crush the pro-democracy protests in March.

The kingdom's rulers blamed sectarianism and Iran's manipulation of the protests.

The country's Sunni leaders, however, lifted military-run emergency laws in June 1 in a bid for talks with Shia groups and other opposition factions.

But Shia leaders insist that authorities must ease security pressures and protest-linked trials before dialogue can occur.